Endowment Fund for Student Support

One of the main activities of the NZMS is providing financial support to postgraduate students in mathematics. The Society provides an annual grant to the New Zealand Mathematics and Statistics Postgraduate Conference, helping it to continue as an entirely free event, and also provides direct grants of up to $1000 to allow students to attend workshops, present their research at international conferences, and to develop new collaborations. Many of the students given support have gone on to successful careers in mathematics in New Zealand and overseas.

The grants have several benefits for students:

they give students experience in applying for external funding;

they are available regardless of whether the student studies in a rich or a poor department, or for an advisor with or without independent funding;

they are independent of the vagaries of government funding (for example, the well-funded Education New Zealand postgraduate travel grant scheme was cancelled in 2009).

Presently the scheme is funded through membership dues and from an endowment that was built up in the 1980s from the income from publishing textbooks written by Society members. However, to continue and to expand the scheme significantly we now aim to fund it entirely from investment income from donations. In 2007 we received a bequest of $10,000 from the estate of Gloria Olive, a founding member of the NZMS. Its income funds the annual Gloria Olive Student Travel Award. As a charity, the Society does not pay tax on its investment income, making this a very efficient way of providing an income stream.

Donations to this valuable fund can be made in several ways:

Add your donation to your annual membership dues.

Send a cheque (to “New Zealand Mathematical Society, Inc.”) to the Treasurer. You will receive a receipt to allow you to claim your tax credit.

Make a bank transfer to BNZ 020630 0341731 000 (enter “Particulars: NZMSdona”, “Reference: LASTNAME”) along with an email to the Treasurer.

Make a regular donation through payroll giving. From 7 January 2010, you can make charitable donations directly from your pay and receive immediate tax credits. You need to give your employer:

The name of the donee organisation (“New Zealand Mathematical Society, Inc.”)